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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778749">Harder to Look</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExploretheEcccentricities/pseuds/ExploretheEcccentricities'>ExploretheEcccentricities</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff will ensue soon, Gen, Not my best but I have an idea, The actual characters and relationships will show up later in the work, The original character may not actually be original, Work In Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 15:29:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,116</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22778749</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ExploretheEcccentricities/pseuds/ExploretheEcccentricities</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Hope is always easier to see than to look for. The only issue was that being the sundrop made it impossible to not see, but being human made it harder to look.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Cassandra &amp; Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled), Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Harder to Look</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>*WARNING: Confusing dream sequence. Don't like, don't read. Rapunzel is not exactly logical at the moment.<br/>The essence is that Rapunzel falls unconscious for a longer period of time after being trapped in that cave with the poisonous gas during "A Tale of Two Sisters"-as in comes closer to death than expected, and has this dream/vision. </p><p>I was curious, because if Rapunzel were to die indirectly because of Cassandra, what exactly would that imply for Cassandra, the broken moonstone, and the growing darkness in the earth (that she can now control at will)? Seriously, I know them fighting freed Zhan Tiri from her realm, so it makes sense that them working together (presumably during that eclipse) COULD lock her back up, but what if Cassandra actually killed her back there? Would that have been possible, considering her hair always finds a way to protect her and those she loves? CAN the one who wields the moonstone kill the one who embodies the sundrop in a non-magical way?<br/>This is something I spontaneously managed to put together regarding Rapunzel's actual feelings on a few things (because this girl has been through a lot and deserves a lot of love). I agree that she shouldn't have to bear the weight of not giving up on Cass when Cass herself always tries to kill her/push her away, AND I understand Cass' predicament as well-but that's an opinion for another time. I just wanted her to have another dream/vision.<br/>I had originally planned to set this during the time she used the fourth incantation in Cassandra's Revenge (My God that was the most epic thing I have ever seen), but I realized I wouldn't be able to properly fit it. Rapunzel's dream is ... weird, and it's up to ya'll to decide who is actually talking to her (I'm actually curious as to who you think it is). I made it confusing, vague, and long on purpose (sorry) but there will be another story or chapter (I might make it a series) that will explain most things.<br/>I also thought it was interesting that this near-death experience was almost more...human than her other ones-it seemed the rifts with poisonous gas caused by the black rocks were more successful in hurting Rapunzel than any of Cass' sharp, unbreakable rocks directly.<br/>I love love love the lore in the series revolving around the sundrop and moonstone, and think that was quite well written.<br/>I purposefully took some liberties with grammar and some words because the dream does not have to make sense...yet.<br/><br/>First work for Rapunzel, so no flames please!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Inspired by this quote by "The Great Dialogues of Plato"<em>: "The sun provides not only the power of being seen for things seen, but, as I think you will agree, also their generation and growth and nurture, although it is not itself generation...Similarly with things known, you will agree that the good is not only the cause of their becoming known, but the cause that they are, the cause of their state of being, although the good is not itself a state of being but something transcending far beyond it in dignity and power" </em>(Republic VI 507b-509c).</p><p>
  <em>...</em>
</p><p>“Please, Cass!” Rapunzel sobbed harder, pleading, <em>begging</em> for her old friend to answer her calls as she always used to, rush to her aid with a shoulder to cry on and a sword to swing at whomever had dared to come near her. Internally, she could feel her heart shattering as her hope weaned and her consciousness slipped, the pervading hush of darkness obscuring her vision and hearing. It felt as though her bones were heavier than iron, yet her skin felt as delicate as<span class="Apple-converted-space"> fabric, sagging as her body was weighed down and she collapsed onto the rock.</span></p><p>She had to do it.</p><p>She had to try.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>“Powers of the sun, gift me with your light.”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>The incantation did not invigorate her with a sudden, powerful surge of energy and passion as it did when she last used it. Instead, she felt as though the toxic fumes had forcefully burrowed their way into her lungs, clogging her throat and blinding her vision as she spluttered like a fish out of the water, her mind whirring and spinning in a dull attempt at panic.</p><p>Then, nothing. Almost as if the air had been knocked out of her, and all light had merely been switched off.</p><p>Rapunzel's mouth remained open and moving.</p><p>It was almost like she was speaking as she thought it and singing as she felt it at the same time, and all of these…these versions of her voice-except it wasn’t <em>quite</em> her voice-echoed off each other simultaneously, creating an ominous cacophony of her voice at many pitches in time, escalating as though she was yelling it for all it was worth, the words scattering frivolously through her barely stable consciousness and materializing into everything and nothing that held her, let her float in this immortal abyss.</p><p>Her thoughts-were not quite entirely her own.</p><p>She could still feel them to an extent-yet not <em>quite</em> hold them as her own. They crept out of her being endlessly like unraveling lace, sending vibrant shudders down her spine as she tried to transcend the crippling strangeness with whatever reason she could grapple.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Its power came from a reverence of sustaining life-defending, providing, maintaining, and preserving light and goodness.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>A constant amongst the every inconstancies of life, a moderate that could hurt at its most extremes.</em>
</p><p><em>Its light provided warmth that healed and refurbished life, and though nonliving itself, it burned with more energy than any flame a mortal may kindle</em>.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>“Shine into the dark, restore our fading sight.”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Someone was speaking-singing it with her. A voice that was neither male nor female, and unrecognizable yet familiar sound that she felt she intimately knew, like a friend.</p><p>Her mind wandered elsewhere. </p><p>Cassandra would come, wouldn’t she? She couldn’t leave her here! She would not lose her faith in Cassandra’s strength, lose her hope in the strength of their bond. However much the dark depths of Cassandra’s hurt obscured her sight, she would not fall to the darkness-fall for the dark reality that was their current situation. She-she was the literal embodiment of the sundrop! The epitome of hope, life, and healing, the one who was to guard and provide for her subjects with her light. She could forgive.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>She tried to kill you, multiple times.</b>
</p><p> </p><p><em>She was hurt</em>, Rapunzel reasoned. She was possessed-she was sick-that wasn’t Cass! She was being manipulated, played for a fool. Zhan Tiri said so herself.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>She left you to die. She ignored your pleas.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>She's chosen our friendship over more important things before. What could she possibly be after?</em>
</p><p>Rapunzel's face, heated with a feverish pain and overflown with tears, scrunched and twisted in agony as she started to convulse. Her own cries of misery echoed within her ears.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Do you want the truth, Sundrop? The knowledge you seek?</b>
</p><p> </p><p>With a shuddering, light breath, without even knowing why or hesitating in an attempt to understand, she heavily sighed out effortfully, “please” before the crooked word was denounced by the pregnant pause which followed.</p><p>A soft tune seeped into her heart as she lay half-conscious, suspended weightlessly in air-unable to move, yet being able to perceive an essence of wonders. Light splashed across her mind, and though she was sure her eyes were closed, she was seeing sound and tasting smell.</p><p>Her vision began to adjust to a series of orderly voices-as though there was a story being told, and merely seeing it enabled her to grasp onto what little semblance of reality and consciousness she had left. But she wasn’t truly seeing it either-there were no images or objects materializing in her mind, only a clear instinct that clung to her tongue above the stinging sweet smells than engulfed her, cocooned her in a warm embrace despite the sensation that she was simultaneously falling into an endless chasm while somehow being suspended in midair.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>“Rise into the dawn, blazing star so bright!”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>There was definite hope after this dark night-the inevitable rise of the sun, the returning of its powerful beams of brightness showering upon all that had crippled and hidden away in the cascades of the dark night, deep coruscating flashes dancing with delight as gloom seeped out of the dark night, as darkness lost its despairing clutch on the blanket of light.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hope was ablaze and the sky was alive and the star was an orb bursting so bright!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>What was happening? There was no sequence to her thoughts, no order, she couldn’t even remember contemplating any of this. Was someone…speaking to her? Was this her talking to herself? It wouldn’t be the first time.</p><p>...But she had never done that in a dream before!</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Sight shall restore</em>
</p><p>
  <em>because the new hope prospered once more,</em>
</p><p>
  <em>and life could now heal and thrive</em>
</p><p>
  <em>because the new sun triumphed and keeps hope alive.</em>
</p><p>It was though she was thinking this, but not quite as herself. These thoughts were not her own. They sounded...strange, deeply mystifying yet alarmingly peculiar.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>“Burn away the strife, and let my hope ignite!”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The sun, a warmth to the living and a burn to the darkness. A gentle being that watches as its subjects are sustained in the closure of comfort and security, confident that she will rise again tomorrow, well rested and ready to only give more and give for more, give sight to more.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>Hm…it seems she…it…this…was talking about the sun. She was thinking, or rather, someone was telling her, of the sun. It made sense-she was the sundrop, was she not? A fragment-a minuscule miracle from a magnificent mirage.</p><p>Rapunzel closed her eyes, trying to steady her quaking breaths and concentrate.</p><p>This time, she attempted to clear her mind of trying to figure out what was happening in the hopes that it would piece together itself.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The light of the sun provided clarity often by refracting, bending, reflecting off objects, relaying subjectivity, allowing fragility and change and emotion to corrupt the less perfect beings that now scoured the earth. Painting an image with shadows and angles and layers of complexity.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And that was the power of the sun-not in obscuring darkness, but showing what was true-and the truth was that there was not much in darkness, which is why it burned away.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“But Cassandra isn’t the darkness. She is plagued by it, incited by it to do things she otherwise wouldn’t do! The darkness is not in her soul, it is in our sight!” Rapunzel tried to plead, her blood thundering in her chest, rushing haphazardly through her veins.</p><p>To her surprise, her mouth did not open. She did not speak, but she felt as though she had. Why was her dream confusing her like this?</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Is it though? She is not only plagued by darkness, she is tempted by it because she is more plagued by hurt. But why do you think that is?</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Rapunzel didn’t try to answer, her breath quickening as her lungs wheezed for air, her mind flooded with an overtly sweet sting of aromas. She felt as though she was breathing in a cold fire, trying fitfully to swallow a lump that grew like a repugnant weed throughout her being.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The sun was powerful for its light, and the clarity of what was true and good persisted in it to manifest into things specific only to life: sight and warmth. A constance of hope against an ever-chasing darkness, a source of heat against the pervasive frigid breeze of life that otherwise shriveled dynasties and buried corpses.</b>
</p><p> </p><p><em>What does that have to do with Cass? </em>Rapunzel thought, wanting to scream it yet knowing it would only exacerbate the broiling impatience in her blood, the uncomfortably strain of her veins against her skin.</p><p>She wasn’t speaking again. Rapunzel wanted to scream in frustration. Who was talking, and who was this person talking to?</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Cassandra was tempted by darkness. This is true. But your undying hope for her to return, your everlasting faith in her, is not going to change what she has done to you, to those you love. This cannot continue.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Rapunzel blinked, brows furrowing and headache worsening. So it-she-the voice- could hear her thoughts. But still, it was a different voice-that voice that was supposedly and most definitely her, except it very much wasn’t, and nothing about this was right. This could not continue. She didn’t belong here.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The sun provides the warmth to heal, but it does not heal indefinitely. It will burn away the strife, sundrop, chase away darkness, so that the world may keep thriving and life may keep aging. The sun’s light may shine upon everyone, but there will always be those who find closure in their darkness, prefer the night for . That is why the moon is there, sundrop. To reflect the smallest semblance of the sun’s vast light.</b>
</p><p> </p><p><em>But I don’t think like that. I am more than the sundrop, and at the same time much less than what you think I am.</em> <b></b></p><p> </p><p>
  <b>You are exactly who I know you to be. You gained your powers before you were brought to the world, before you gained consciousness; in a state of purity and innocence where you could never learn to master them for yourself. Cassandra, on the other hand, took what was rightfully yours, and with those exact ends in mind.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>The-moonstone?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>No, child, your destiny. Your destiny to reunite what had once broken apart and created rifts in the earth and heavens, neutralizing the darkness that plagued the world and restoring the humanity it had vanquished.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>And Cass-Cass doesn’t actually represent the moon, does she? All she did was take the moonstone.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The moonstone did not quite choose Cassandra, but its powers manifests off of the origin of the darkness the black rocks represnt- illusion from suppressed truth. Why else would she now be able to control them with the third incantation, whereas before she only operated them through hatred and anger?</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Rapunzel frowned. She had not known that. How had Cass figured that out? Had her friend actually felt true hatred towards her? Had things gotten that bad?</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>The moonstone longed to be reunited with you. But the sun did not choose you either. Cass is not entitled to these powers by any greater chance that the sundrop manifested itself in you and gifted you with your powers.</b>
</p><p> </p><p><em>Cass wanted to kill me. Zhan Tiri must have convinced her that destroying me was the only way she could wield complete power. But that makes me think…</em>w<em>hat would happen to the moonstone if I just…relinquished my powers? What if I don’t want to be the sundrop anymore? Will everything go back to normal? If the moon is nothing without the sun-</em></p><p> </p><p><b>Ah, that is untrue. The moon is merely invisible without the sun, never retaining a glow of its own, but it does very much exist still, even if it can only reflect. It will neither consume nor provide, but for the earthlings it is a reminder that the sun is always there. Light persists by the sun through its beams, and in the darkest times, when the earth turns its face away from the sun to bow in darkness, it persists through the moon.</b> <b></b></p><p><b>You are that light, sundrop. The light of the sun in an otherwise bleak sky, powerful enough to provide for all, and a faint glow in the impending darkness, striving to remind that you will once again rise and do so for the next day. One day, you shall govern the Kingdom of the Sun as the Sun governs the world. A human sundrop may not be eternal but endless, powerful all the same.</b> <b></b></p><p>
  <b>As for how destinies go, do not forget that the moonstone was a pathway to this, but only because you were human embodiment of the sundrop. You would not have reason to unite them if they had not split apart in the first place. You cannot relinquish this gift. Not without fulfilling your destiny.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I’m sorry.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>No, child, you will not apologize. You will do what is best for yourself and your realm. You will go back to earth, and end this once and for all.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>End-End what?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Finish what the universe started. Unite the sun and moon. Only then will your world thrive in peace.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>But how? How do I do that if she won’t listen to me? She won’t come back!</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>You do not need her to come back. You both need to come together.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>How? Is there anyway I can reconcile?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>That is not something that’s up to you, but I think you know very well what you need to do. The sun and moon must persist to coexist, because there will always be darkness and frightening change in the world.You, as a human and magical being, know this too well, child, which is why I am sending you back to the realm where you belong.</b>
</p><p> </p><p><em>Don’t</em>. She choked and spluttered pleadingly, overcome with a debilitating euphoric sensation that escaped her every breath and hammered into her skull, her vision clouding once more. <em>I don’t understand…you told me what I already know. I didn’t need some exposition on the sun and moon. I still need your help. Please tell me how I can get through to her.</em></p><p>The eerie silence deafened her pleas.</p><p>Then a shimmer of light trickled down line of vision-as much as it could with her eyes closed, anyway.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>I already told you. As the sundrop your light brings hope makes it easier to see the truth, but as a human your hope has made truth harder to see, and so the light you seek in your friend is harder to look for.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>But there is still hope for her. I’m not wrong. She may be misguided but I will never give up on her. I promise.I can’t-I don’t want to give up on her. She is there. She’s..not light, nor dark. She’s Cass, she was there…she-she was with me. She called me Raps.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“She hurt you, sunshine.” To her utter bewilderment, Eugene’s voice rang clearly in her ears.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>Giving up on her will hurt me more. Accepting what isn’t true will hurt me more.</em>
</p><p> </p><p>“But Rapunzel, she left you.” The rare yet heavy solemnity in Eugene’s voice percolated in her mind, intensifying the dull ache that had begun to relentlessly claw its way through her head once more.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>I’m tired of fighting her, of waiting for her. Surely she must be tired of waiting too! But why should that mean we have to end anything? What are we trying to end? Why can’t things be the same again?</em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>Days must change into nights, and nights into days, but the sun must provide both ways.</b>
</p><p> </p><p>So then reality and magic clashed as they tore apart at the seams, blinding the girl as she fell once more as a ball of light, surrounded instinctively by the shining hair yet thrashing in its consoling embrace, against its calm attempts to shield her from the unforgiving landing.</p><p> </p><p>“I love you most.”</p><p> </p><p>“When will you realize I will always get the better of you? Whether you are trapped in a tower, or trapped in your own mind?”</p><p> </p><p>Her heart thundered and vociferated in excruciating pulses as she curled in on herself further, still falling, still very much not grounded in any way possible. Overwhelmed, the princess-sundrop-girl closed her eyes and pursed her lips, inhaling sharply as she realized her voice would not escape, her blood whirring in tandem to her shattering sanity.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you think I was gone forever?”</p><p>“Come now dear, let’s get back to your tower, where you will be safe and secure.”</p><p>"Are you that obliviously naive-"</p><p>“Caaaass!”</p><p> </p><p>There was no longer something to hold onto, no longer something holding her.</p><p>The shrill screams echoed off the wall in a tumultuous altercation once more, conquering her, enveloping and silencing her. For the first time, she felt the sheer force of her weight pull heavily and excruciatingly down on her as she began to fall down the endless abyss once more.</p><p>Nothing and everything conglomerated into a sharp, clear hiss of indefinite finality, a voice she could now recognize, clutching desperately and relentlessly to with a distressed sob as the only familiar, sane truth in the whirlwind of unreal and otherworldly pains.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b>“Prepare yourself, sundrop. An eclipse is coming, and when it does, Corona will become nothing more than dust.”</b>
</p><p> </p><p>Cassandra now stood above Rapunzel, watching silently as the princess became entrenched in the darkness of the whatever she had fallen into.</p><p> </p><p>
  <strong>"Let hope ignite!"</strong>
</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, the iridescent sheen of the once glowing black rocks became brighter, sickeningly ablaze to the extent that Rapunzel could not discern their color anymore, lighting the surroundings behind her friend to make her figure prominently easier to see-but obscuring the edges of her face, darkening the subtle, untold sorrows in her eyes, the ashen wrinkles pronouncing her tired gaze, making Cassandra harder to look at.</p><p>And as Rapunzel’s vision began to fade, the remnants of her best friend became harder to look for.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>THIS is what happens when a certain magical sunshine girl summons the ultimate powers of the sun to accidentally battle her counterpart and unleash a demon, almost dies multiple times in gruesome ways, and persists to be a wholesome character in the same season. Don't worry, I love Rapunzel, so she shall have the hugs and answers she deserves. ;)<br/>I know there's some changes in what is in bold, italicized, and in regular text, but that's just meant to show that she can't discern whether they are her thoughts, or someone speaking to her, or both. Yes, that's confusing, but I promised an extension, so that will clear things up!<br/>This idea came to me because I was thinking of an eclipse (I saw it last year in December), and how it's difficult to look at even though you can more properly see the shape of the sun and moon to an extent. Just thought it could apply to this situation...in more ways than one. Coincidentally, I was also reading Plato. Chaos ensued. Make of it what you will.<br/>I do not hate Cassandra. I plan to make another fic of her perspective after this episode as well.<br/>Someone give these girls a break. And a fandom of hugs.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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